Getting Hooked:
Barhopping in Angistri

BY ALEXIA AMVRAZI

THEISLANDofAngistriwas the first to invitingly call me away from
this crazy city and its sinister
everyone's-going-on-holiday tune and introduce
me to its quaint but quizzical night-life.
It's not often you can walk out of a bar
tanned and refreshed from marvellously endless
hours of swimming in some of the country's
cleanest waters.

Angistri (which means hook), located just
after the island of Aegina (southwest of
Athens), is only one hour away from Piraeus by
Catamaran or Flying Dolphin and two hours by
ferry. It's the perfect getaway for anyone who
wants to leave the city and find genuine
wilderness, beauty and calm.

In only two days of visiting, my dear visiting
friend (from depressingly rainy England),
Alexia Petsalis and I swam plenty, enjoyed the
most delicious varieties of fresh,
melt-in-your-mouth calamari, squid and
marides, trekked among the beautifully
savage pine-tree-lined rocks and chilled out
over a game of backgammon with iced coffee at
sunset.

The perfect way to end the day? Bar-hopping of
course.

A friend with perfectly reliable taste for
travel locations recommended we stay at the
Angistri Club hotel, only 15 minutes from the
port. At night here, you can melt into a
deck-chair with a cocktail and be kissed by
the sultriest of moons as it gloriously
ascends above the black velvet water. But
above all, it's the meeting point for a
colourful and vivacious crowd of Greeks and
foreigners alike, who gather there nightly to
delight in succulent dishes and to drink
together as if for the very first time.
"That's all we do here! " chortles
cosmopolitan owner Brian Robinson, who has
been on the island for some 20 years.

Margaritas, with their city-life association,
lost their lure here, and we opted for the
naff-sounding but nonetheless excellently
prepared Pina Coladas (barman Allan kindly
divulged his secret recipe, as listed below),
with their creamy cool feel and warming
after-tang.

During the dinner that followed, piquant
conversation was abruptly broken off to gape
at the flaming red moon, which ordered us to
imbibe chilled retsina like there was no
tomorrow. But we were on the island to
investigate all its night-life, and thus had
to unhook ourselves from our company and
follow the grey cement road.

With insider's tips from Brian & Co, we
proceeded to Aquarius Bar, a big,
wood-and-glass thronging club which promised
to be the place to be. We were wrong.

Aquarius was host to a bunch of non-fastidious
tourists - dusty sandals, over-heated blondies
snaking around with the local kamakia,
and bored, frappe-drinking islanders
armed with a disapproving stare directed at
all us corrupt invaders.

But the music (70s disco, 80s pop and early
90s rave with a touch of modern-trash Greek)
was excellent and, picking a corner, we
bounced along nonetheless. The wine we ordered
(white, by the glass) was as foul as it was
cheap, at only 450 drs each.

There's a limit to any overwhelming, er,
pleasure and, still following our host's
advice, we moved on to Copa Cabana, where the
atmosphere is far less rowdy and a tad more
sophisticated. There you can listen to 50s
jazz or 60s smoothies and unwind in the dark.
Locals of the foreign kind seem to favour this
place and end up here from late to even later.
Which brings us to Hook, a tiny café
surrounded by the sea which remains open for
an astounding 24 hours daily.

Hook too has its loyal customers and will
welcome the presence of one person as much as
it will of 30. Uninterested in drinks, we
chose this bar for our final swim of the day,
which was appropriately refreshing after
smoky, sweaty noise.

If you want to be asked whether you've "got
your land-legs back yet", visit a moving
bar.

Robert, a rugged Briton who has inhabited the
island for 11 years, is not only an
exceptional chef, sea-captain (or rather,
according to his friends, "a pirate") and
skilful story-teller but also a barman.

For a very reasonable price he will take you
and up to six or seven of your friends on a
four-hour tour around Angistri and its
dramatic nearby islands, during which you can
stop for a heavenly swim in a secluded
cove.

We planned our journey around a sunset finale,
which, accompanied by a glass of exquisite
chilled wine or ouzo and a mouth-watering
boat-made meze, is enough to make you fall in
love with life all over again.

Arrange your stay at Angistri Club with the
sweet and funny Hugo Kay-Berghan,at Angistri Club

WARNINGS

* Regardless of our eloquence and
Greek-speaking, we were cheated by the
'Superfast Ferries' agency in Pireaus, where
we were sold Minoan Lines Catamaran tickets to
Angistri (4,000 drs rtn) for what turned out
to be a Minoan Flying Dolphin toAegina
. FromAegina
, we had to wait for the Keravnos
catamaran boat, which costs 2,000 drs rtn and
gets you to Angistri fromPiraeusin just an hour. Upon being confronted after
our return about this ominously party-pooper
event, Ms Stella of the port-based agency
instantly apologised (Not), and sagely said
"You can't expect boats to go wherever you
want!"

* We visited Angistri mid-week. Weekends are
crowded as the island is gaining more and more
fans.

* Angistri is said to have got its name
because everyone who visits it gets
hooked.

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